


Costume Party

by galactic-pirates (stillsearching47)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Marvel Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 14:12:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10743318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillsearching47/pseuds/galactic-pirates
Summary: Charles Gold is less than impressed with his costume for the superhero charity benefit. Belle has her reasons for the choice.





	Costume Party

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Little_Inkstone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Inkstone/gifts).



> _Little Inkstone_ happy birthday to the best giftee anyone could ever ask for! You may recognize some of your own words back from my ask in February. I may have been planning ahead :) I hope this is alright, I wanted to do something special for you. Hope you enjoy it!

Work, money, the pursuit of power, had utterly consumed him.

He’d lied to himself, said he was doing everything for his boy - for Bae, even as his beloved son slipped through his fingers. Left to make a life of his own, left in disgust at the man his father had become. Charles Gold - the man, the legend, the inventor with the ‘golden’ touch. The man who had started with nothing, and built an empire worth billions which spanned the globe, an empire which had infiltrated almost every industry. Everyone saw the magazine covers, the glossy spreads, the swagger and the sarcastic quotes.

Gold had become invisible inside his own life and hadn’t even noticed. He’d been so caught up in the whirlwind of power and glory, of finally being someone that mattered. Then he’d made that fateful trip to the desert, which he’d hated at the time because the sand got everywhere, and in the depths of Afghanistan there had been nowhere left to hide. It was like a mirror had been turned on his life and he saw what he’d become, and what he’d lost, and what he still stood to lose.

From scraps, and broken dreams of Bae, he’d built a way out. When he left that desert, he had a shattered leg which would never fully heal, but the biggest change was in his purpose. Belle, his long-suffering assistant, had been at the Air Force base to welcome him back. She’d told him that Bae had worried, that he’d called, but he wasn’t there when he returned home and Gold understood. Bae was still angry, and he didn’t know that it was his father that had come home - not Charles Gold.

_“So can you explain the events at your factory?” the reporter asked a couple of months later._

_Gold knew what he should say, what he’d been told to say, but he thought of Bae who deserved the truth and of Belle who had stood by him even at his worst. It had been Bae who had put him on this path. His tale hadn’t been one of pure villainy - it had been an origin story._

_“When my son was young he loved comic books. Not all of the characters had powers of their own, Batman only had his technology, and I remembered that when I needed help,” Gold explained, mentally snorting at how the reporters eyes were lighting up at the unexpected scoop of the year. Gold nodded, turning to Belle, who smiled in reassurance._

_“I am Iron Man.”_

Nothing had been the same since. He had declared himself a hero as surely as if he’d pulled Excalibur from the stone, and he’d become a lightning rod for those that wanted to make a name for themselves. Belle hadn’t minded him being a trouble magnet, or the number of suits which multiplied exponentially as he tinkered in search of impossible perfection. So long as he always came back to her, and he was honest, she was far more accepting than he deserved.

_“I always wanted an adventure Cal,” Belle told him, her eyes shining brightly. “Life with you is never going to be boring.”_

Their wedding was possibly the happiest day of his life. Not only had they got married, but Bae had attended, his son finally coming back into his life and offering his forgiveness. Gold considered it the start of a new chapter of his life in more ways than one. His life was beginning with Belle but also, it was the start of a new chapter as a family. It was everything Gold had ever wanted but family while wonderful, was also trouble, and it led to being trapped in situations like this.

“Why are we doing this again?” Gold whined.

Belle rolled her eyes. “Because it’s for a good cause.” Gold huffed, that was a good reason to throw money at something, it was not a good reason to humiliate himself. “Because it’ll make Bae happy,” Belle added.

Gold sighed heavily. “I could just go as myself,” he griped looking at the costume with disdain.

He was Iron Man for crying out loud, if he had to go to a costume party then his superhero alter-ego seemed like the perfect choice. Yes, it wasn’t a costume, it was a highly advanced piece of cybernetic technology. Yes it was technically a weapon, or a lot of weapons, with more firepower than a small tank, but he wouldn’t use any of them so that shouldn’t matter. Besides the suit had a full face mask, so he could mock all the idiots he liked and nobody would be able to tell. An unexpected side benefit when attending events in the suit.

“No,” Belle said firmly. “I chose these for us specifically. You’re wearing it.”

Belle threw the clothing bag at his chest and stormed out of their bedroom. Gold pouted, and sighed, limping over to hang the bag back up. His eyes flickered to the clock, the party wasn’t for another couple of hours but by the look of that skin tight leather, he might need every spare minute to squeeze himself inside it. Gold shook his head, he wore suits - metal or otherwise, while in public. They were his armor whether they were actual armor or not. This costume would be like walking around naked, it was so tight his dignity didn’t stand a chance.

Gold growled in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. Since their reconciliation Bae had made a splash on the charity scene. Tonight’s costume party was his brainchild, superhero themed to benefit orphaned children. That was a cause they could all enthusiastically get behind anyway, but Gold knew it was particularly close to Bae’s heart because it was particularly close to his fiancé Emma’s. Emma had grown up in the system and knew firsthand what those children needed. Belle was right, that their attendance was important, but Gold still didn’t understand why he couldn’t go as himself.

He looked the costume over again. Ignoring the skin tight leather, he supposed it wasn’t _that_ bad. There was a gold stripe up the side, which for obvious reasons was very much his color, and so was a nice touch. He wasn’t sure whether the tattered red fabric was a cape or a shawl, either way it was ripped and he wasn’t a fan. He’d never understood why that was a fashion, if something was ripped then it needed to be mended or replaced.

The fingerless gauntlets were alright but he didn’t like the headpiece. Maybe he could get away with accidently on purpose leaving that at home. It was a grey band which would go over his forehead, but then the back would cover his skull and there were holes for his ears. He would look ridiculous. Gold huffed in annoyance and opened up the bag, searching for a label. This was almost certainly a costume from a comic book, and he thought he should know who he was pretending to be for the evening.

“Belle,” Gold called, when he couldn’t find a tag. “Who am I supposed to be?”

“Scarlet Witch,” Belle shouted back.

Gold looked askance in her direction, limping over towards the bathroom. He might not have read comic books for over a decade, not since Bae was little, but he remembered enough to know that Scarlet Witch was a woman. He was a man and surely there were enough male superheroes out there. If he couldn’t be himself, then why couldn’t he have been Batman? That was a close enough likeness, and with a bit of notice and a spot of tinkering, he might even have been able to build something like the batmobile. Surely the kids would have liked that.

“Belle, far be it for me to ... “ Gold pushed open the bathroom door and his jaw dropped. “What are you?” he gestured helplessly.

“I’m Vision,” Belle explained simply, her eyes focused on the mirror as she painted her face pink.

“But Vision’s a man,” Gold objected faintly. It wasn’t that he was offended, or had a problem with it, he was just more confused than anything else. “I suppose there were those comics where the genders of various heroes got reversed," he mused. "It’s hard to keep up with all the twists of the various universes. Bae used to be able to explain it all but it made my head spin.”

“But you _are_ a rocket scientist,” Belle teased.

Gold lips quirked, he’d lost count of how many times Belle had said that and it made him smile every time. She was right it wasn’t rocket science, but rocket science was something he understood.

Belle’s smile turned into a frown as her thick face paint grew lumpy along her smile lines. Absently she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter anyway because I don’t think that ever happened with Scarlet Witch and Vision.”

“Oh,” Gold muttered. “But then sweetheart I don’t ...”

“Technically your costume is Wiccan’s, who is Scarlet Witch’s son, which given the context is best not thought about,” Belle continued. “They have the same sort of power set and it was the closest I could get to a male costume.”

“Ok,” Gold said slowly. “But we could have been anyone.”

“Yes,” Belle acknowledged carefully. She shrugged. “It’s probably stupid.”

Gold frowned, he was missing something and by the sounds of things something quite significant. If he’d chosen a costume, then he would have chosen a _costume_ but Belle had obviously put more thought into it. He wasn’t surprised by that, Belle rarely did anything without thought. She was good at unwrapping layers, and getting to the core of situations, she’d certainly whipped through his defenses before he’d known what was happening. Belle had always been more than an assistant, she was far too smart just to fetch his coffee and manage his appointments.

Although truthfully she’d lasted as long as she had in that role because she was too good for it, she’d swiftly transitioned to managing him more than anything. Even before Afghanistan, before he’d acknowledged even to himself how much he loved her, she’d been practically running more of his business than he was. That was why he’d made her CEO, it left him free to invent, and Belle was good with people, she managed them with a casual ease that mystified him. His technique was sarcasm, intimidation and dealmaking, which had produced results but Belle was even better. She hid her intelligence behind a sweet facade, and with charm and warm smiles, she got a lot out of people before they even realized they were giving anything away.

“You chose these characters for a reason,” Gold stated. Belle nodded. “I don’t remember the mythology sweetheart. I’m sure you’ve chosen perfectly and I’d like to understand ...”

“When I first met you, you’d lost a lot,” Belle started, as she finished off her makeup, touching up some parts that she’d missed, so she was completely pink. “You’re very powerful and you changed the world, not for yourself but for those you loved. Nothing has been the same since you declared you were Iron Man. Superheroes used to be fictional and you made them real.”

“Belle,” Gold breathed in wonder. Was that really how she saw him?

“Nobody sees the real you, and a lot of people are scared of what you can do. That’s the same for the character but just one character isn’t enough, it had to be a pair,” Belle continued, she put the makeup brush down and reached for the green headpiece, sliding it over her head so only her face was visible.

“Fictional counterparts or not, we _are_ a pair,” Gold insisted.

He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips, dropping a kiss on the back of it in lieu of kissing her properly. _That_ explained Belle’s insistence on the costumes and he felt a little ashamed that he hadn’t thought about that himself. If he was Iron Man, then who was Belle? He saw her as his equal, his partner in all things, but the world didn’t see everything that Belle did. If they were Scarlet Witch and Vision for the evening, then they would be a _pair_ , not the billionaire and his invisible wife.

Belle smiled softly at him. “I’ve always had a love of exploration, the world is so amazing if we take the time to stop and just appreciate it. I’m a fairly good researcher ...”

“You’re an excellent researcher,” Gold interrupted, unwilling even between the two of them to let Belle be modest. “You know I don’t really have the patience half the time, and you are like a laser, you just cut through the task with precision.”

“It’s not a perfect comparison,” Belle finished. “But it felt right.”

“Then it _is_ right,” Gold stated firmly. He pulled a face. “Apart from the excessive makeup.”

Belle giggled. “I know. Another reason why we had to do it this way round, you never would have put up with the makeup yourself.”

Gold snorted, that wasn’t his problem. He wanted to hold Belle, to kiss her, and if he tried then the pink makeup would smear everywhere. That wouldn’t matter later, that was what showers and washing machines had been invented for, not to mention money if the stains didn’t come out. However, he knew Belle wouldn’t appreciate him wrecking the makeup now. He blew her a kiss and wandered back into the bedroom, opening up the clothing bag and taking out the leather pants. At least nobody was here to see him flap around like a fish out of water pulling them on, and hopefully they would be easier to peel off.

Two hours later when they entered the party. From across the room Bae raised his drink in a silent toast of approval. Belle beamed, looking radiant in her skin tight pink and green costume, with the flowing golden cape. Gold wasn’t wearing his trademark suits, he should feel ridiculous, but on her arm suddenly he felt ten foot tall. Thanks to the wonder of technology he’d forgone his cane for the evening, he couldn’t use the brace all the time or the muscle would atrophy, but for tonight his leg wouldn’t hold him back.

Gold let his ragged crimson cape swish out behind him as he bowed low in front of Belle. “Care for a dance Mrs Gold?”


End file.
